Injury-plagued GWS veteran Brett Deledio will be sidelined until the AFL finals and Giants spearhead Jeremy Cameron is also in doubt for a potential milestone game this week.
Cameron, who is scheduled to play his 150th game in Sunday’s home match with the Western Bulldogs, suffered a minor hamstring injury against Hawthorn last Friday.
Deledio’s latest injury is another blow for the 32-year-old who comes off contract at the end of this season.
His injury record in recent years is inevitably casting doubt over whether he can play a 16th season in 2020.
Plagued by soft tissue injuries, Deledio has played just 31 of 69 games in almost three seasons since arriving from Richmond after the 2016 season.
“He’s taken it on the chin and he’s doing his rehab straight away,” said Giants coach Leon Cameron.
“He’s preparing to come back ready to go for a finals series.”
The coach added Coleman Medal leader Cameron could still be available after scans cleared the goal scoring ace of serious damage.
“The scans barely showed anything. They (medical staff) are probably undecided about whether it’s just a cork or something very, very minor.
“He’ll train on Thursday and if he gets through we’ll play him.”
The Giants have encountered a spate of mid-to-late season soft tissue injuries with Josh Kelly, Jacob Hopper, Jeremy Finlayson, Harry Himmelberg and Sam Taylor also suffering setbacks.
“We’ve probably had two or three too many so we’ve got to make sure that’s right coming into the finals series and the last two games as well,” Cameron said.
In better news for the sixth-placed Giants, midfielders Kelly and Matt de Boer are both expected to return on Sunday after missing five and seven matches respectively.
Himmelberg is also slated to play after being out for one game, though Finlayson and Hopper are both another week away.
Backs Aidan Corr and Matt Buntine are two players pushing for a recall but Cameron admitted time was running out for key forward Jon Patton, who hasn’t played since last season following his third serious knee injury.
He said Patton could still play in the finals if he made a successful comeback in the NEAFL over the next fortnight or so.